Disarming Charm

"It's covered in dust! You must be the first student in years to pick it up."

Warning!

At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in Wonderbook: Book of Spells. As such, spoilers will be present within the article. Please take care when reading this article if you have not yet been through the latest update.

"That was a Disarming Charm - as you see, I've lost my wand - ah, thank you, Miss Brown. Yes, an excellent idea to show them that, ProfessorSnape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy. However, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..."

The Disarming Charm (Expelliarmus) was a defensive charm which forced the victim to release whatever they were holding at the time, usually against his or her will. It is common to see this spell used in duels, to make an opponent release their wand.[1]

Appearance

The Disarming Charm always appears as a jet of red light; indeed, this is one of the things that makes it recognisable before the effects of the charm are seen.

Effects

The Disarming Charm causes whatever an opponent is holding at the time - usually a wand - to fly high out of their reach; however, more enthusiastic casts can result in the victim of the charm being knocked unconscious in a similar manner to the Stunning Spell. If done too weakly, however, it will merely blow them back a few paces, or make their hair stand on end. If one mispronounces the spell's incantation as Expellimellius, the victim's sleeves will be set aflame.

Priori Incantatem

If two wands with the same core are forced to do battle with each other, the effect is a magical connection called Priori Incantatem. All three of the times Priori Incantatem occured between Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter, the latter was using the Disarming Charm. Indeed, in the final fight between Voldemort and Harry it was the Disarming Charm that allowed Harry to win.

Etymology

English expel, meaning "remove" and Latin arma, meaning "weapon" or "the weapon".

Behind the scenes

"Then a blinding, jagged jet of white light flew through the air: Harry thought of lightning, but Snape had dropped to his knees and his wand had flown out of his hand"